When we talk about Fashion East, a number of superlative descriptors come to mind. To many, the design incubator – founded by Lulu Kennedy in 2000 – is ‘invaluable’, ‘indispensable’, ‘iconic’ and ‘influential’. But the truth is, the sum of all these compliments still doesn’t do justice to what Fashion East has done for the London scene. From Jonathan Anderson and Simone Rocha, to Mowalola and Grace Wales Bonner, Kennedy’s platform has propelled some of the biggest names in fashion onto stellar careers, thanks to rounds of vital funding and a seasonal catwalk at London Fashion Week. So, as designers past and present gather for our Autumn 2025 cover celebrating 25 years of the fashion incubator, we’re looking back at some of the most memorable debuts to come out of Fashion East.

JONATHAN ANDERSON

Jonathan Anderson’s JW Anderson label debuted for the AW09 season at Fashion East, under the MAN initiative in partnership with Topman. “I just wanted to do men,” Anderson told us at the time, when we asked what his intentions were. “It was to get masculinity across, but I think with masculinity, you need to have femininity for it to work. It was trying to show men in general as a group, not picking out individual types of people. It had to be a mixture of things so that people can relate to it on any level; sexual, non sexual, whatever. I wanted it to be real but at the same time imaginative.”

NASIR MAZHAR

For AW10, headgear designer Nasir Mazhar was selected by Kennedy to debut his experimental millinery on the runway for the first time, a celebration of Jamaican rudeboys and rudegirls. “I didn’t know what to think at first,” he told Dazed when asked about the prospect of doing a catwalk. “I was thinking ‘is this right?’ because sometimes there’s a chicken head on a rudeboy and it’s like, ‘how do you make that work on a runway?’ In an installation, it works because there’s these separate characters. On a runway, it’s already formulated.” Fortunately, all went to plan, and the rest is history.

SIMONE ROCHA

“I am absolutely delighted,” Simone Rocha said after her debut Fashion East catwalk, for AW11. “I feel so lucky that I get to do it and, although I am absolutely knackered right now, it has been a fantastic and really inspiring experience.” Scroll through the gallery above to see all the best bits from the show.

GRACE WALES BONNER

Grace Wales Bonner made her Fashion East debut for AW15, after winning the L’Oreal Professionnel Designer of the Year award for her Saint Martins BA collection. Named Ebonics, the collection brought together cowrie shells, crushed velvet and blonde finger waves for a brand new rendering of modern masculinity.

ASHLEY WILLIAMS

For her AW13 Fashion East debut, Ashley Williams introduced us to her obsession with kitschy Americana by plastering Elvis’ face across multiple t-shirts. Elsewhere, skirts and dresses were emblazoned with the words ‘SUBSCRIBE’, while fuzzy teddy bears were worn as accessories.

CHARLOTTE KNOWLES

Before becoming KNWLS in 2021, Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault debuted their first Fashion East collection for SS18 under the brand name Charlotte Knowles. Opting for a presentation rather than a runway, the designers introduced us to the cutout corsetry and cool girl aesthetics that still form the bedrock of the brand’s DNA.

MOWALOLA

The controversy-courting Mowalola Ogunlesi brought her design skills to Fashion East for AW19, and the collection continues to be one of the most memorable debuts to date. Club-ready mini skirts, fiery mohawks and spray-painted leather all coaxed us into the undeniable design world of Mowalola.

MAXIMILIAN DAVIS

Dropped at the height of COVID’s lockdowns, Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis presented his Fashion East debut digitally, but that could never detract from his obvious star quality. But how did he feel about being chosen for Kennedy’s historic scheme? “I found out during lockdown, so I wasn’t sure what was happening!” he told us at the time. “It was quite surreal – I almost cried.”

25 years of Fashion East is at the ICA in London, September 20-21